


No More Black And White (The World Bright)

by ARealFangirlForever



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: (minor) - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, M/M, colorblind!Steve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-19
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2019-08-25 22:56:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16669972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ARealFangirlForever/pseuds/ARealFangirlForever
Summary: You see colors when you meet the eyes of your soulmate..------What if somebody was colorblind?





	No More Black And White (The World Bright)

 

**********

 

He was surrounded by red. Red, So wonderful to finally put a name to that color. To know that red, vibrant, fiery red, that everyone loves to hate, that they all call as the 'Color of Destruction' is his favorite color, with its brilliance and heat that makes him feel warm all over, especially when his soul has frozen over. He is surrounded by red, in his eyes, in his nose and in his mouth, as he desperately tries not to fall over, his heart bursting and his brain numb.

He breathes in the smell of mint and books, something that is so uniquely Pepper as she holds him upright.

 

Rhodey is to his right, rubbing comforting circles to his shoulder, as his brown eyes, (again, so nice to put a color to the name), crinkled at the edges, his brown, brown hands clenching and unclenching, not in fear, not in hate, but in anger.

 

Tony, his eyes wet and full of sorrow, sits between them, his curly hair and his olive – brown complexion (Jarvis always told him that he had the prettiest complexion, but Jarvis had has a soulmate) as he desperately tries not to believe his world is crashing down on him and he is unable to do anything.

 

**********

 

There was a big book in his house. It was there when he had left it, more than six months ago, and he had no way of knowing whether Howard (he would now see Howard's horrifying, disgusting face in color, and wasn't that a tragedy?) had thrown it out or not. That big, solid and thick book was his solace at his house (it would never be his home), that comforting weight on his thighs, as he went through all of the colors and their definitions.

 

“The Dictionary of Colors”, it was called, and it was entirely what the name suggested, a book, a dictionary, that existed solely for colors. At home, when he was young and emboldened by Jarvis, when he was happy and eager to get a soulmate, someone who would love him unconditionally, with all of his faults, and never be like Howard, acting as if he were a disappointment and never good enough, this book was what his dreams were made of.

 

He breezed through the different colors, before he could identify one, let alone differentiate. He memorized Absolute Zero, Amethyst, Azure, and went on up to Yellow-Orange and Zomp, with all the Red, Blue and Green combinations. He read all of them, without really knowing what color they were, and with the meager descriptions the book gave, simple ones such as Naples-Yellow is an inorganic pigment, mainly used in paintings during 1700- 1850, his yearning of colors started.

 

He wanted to see colors, from a very young boy, wide-eyed and innocent, refusing to be cowed down by an alcoholic father (he would now see the amber of whiskey, and maybe, the colors had a downside to them) and an indifferent mother, to see colors, with his soulmate by his side, as they explored the plethora of colors, together,

 

Then, he wanted a soulmate, both for protecting him, loving him for who he was, for Tony, the student and the mechanic, not for Tony Stark, the asshole who always got what he wanted and for someone with whom he can share the beauties of colors.

 

Now, looking back, he wishes, prays that he never even met his soulmate. He could live without the colors, with all the colors that assault his mind right now, the blue of the sky and the red of his wall, the gray of his laptop, and the green of the trees framed by the brown window. He could live without all of these, these colors, because, what use were they, without anybody to enjoy them with?

 

**********

 

He knew about Steve Rogers before he met him. Everybody knows Steve Rogers. The Captain of the Football team. The Star Athlete. The Guy Who Always, Always Stood Up For The Little Guy. The Guy Who Doesn't Tolerate Bullies, Period.

 

There are many stories running around the campus. Of Steve Rogers, the Good Man. There was nobody, literally nobody who hasn't heard of him. How he had both boys and girls throwing themselves at his feet. There were sonnets written about his sun-kissed blond hair, of his blue-blue eyes and his pale, Irish skin. Well, these sonnets were written by, obviously, the guys who have already met their soulmates, and even they have no qualms about offering themselves up to this wonderfully built and all round wonderful man.

 

Tony has heard many people complain about his refusal to date anybody, be it how hot or how beautiful. How he always replies to anyone who asked him out that he was waiting for the right one, his Soulmate.

 

There were also many rumors about Bucky being his Soulmate. Bucky, or James Buchanan Barnes, as he had told countless number of times, is and will always be his brother. Both of them have debunked popular conspiracy theorists that they are not soulmates.

 

So. of course Tony knows all about Steve Rogers even they have never met, and will never meet in the foreseeable future and Steve Rogers, popular Football Captain will never even know that a guy called Tony exists.

 

**********

 

Tony, sometimes is thankful that some people like James Rhodes and Pepper Potts have decided to become his friends. He really doesn't know where he would be and what he would be doing, with the bullies and the haters if not for these two.

 

Being fifteen and in college, even for a genius with an IQ higher than the average IQ of his classmates, it was a tough life. Especially if said genius was a socially awkward person, whose reputation of the son of the CEO of Stark Industries preceded him, and whose friendship people normally did not covet, except for the times when they need him. Then it's a totally different matter.

 

He is thankful that these people are kind enough to befriend a poor shy kid, with awful social interacting skills, that they seem to like him because he is Tony, the mechanic who is awake until 3 a.m. in the night to make sure his experimental learning machine is okay with the garage, the kid who can solve any complex mathematical equation faster than anybody, the kid who cannot function in the morning without at least 2 doses of triple shot espressos.

 

So, when he looks into Steve Rogers' eyes and sees blue as blue as the sky, full of hope and clear headed feeling and when he realizes Steve cannot see colors, the myriad of beauty surrounding them, the red of Rumlow's nose, the silvery-gray of Bucky's arm and the dishwasher blond of Clint's hair, he is thankful for Pepper and Rhodey, who hold him and soothe his broken, smashed heart.

 

**********

 

Mother kept insisting she and Howard were soulmates, that the first thing she saw was the color of Howard's eyes, brown and amber mixed together, the finest of whiskey and the swirling emotions in them. It was all a cliched romantic move, and Tony was pretty sure that Maria was making it up. If anything, Howard never showed emotions. “Stark men are made of iron”.

 

Whenever Maria was conscious enough to care about Tony, and when he was younger, more eager to please them and make them proud of him, both of them would sit in the swing in the garden and this would be the story Maria would more often than not would tell. The romantic moment when both Maria's and Howard's eyes met.

 

It made Tony want to throw up.

 

Whenever Tony heard this story, and seeing the way Howard treated Maria, like a trophy wife in public and like a weight on his shoulders the rest of the time, whenever there was not a camera flashing or a reporter with a notebook in his hand and the way Maria ignored Howard, instead choosing to be with her charities and her parties, which Howard only attended because he cared about his image with the press, Tony would always think that he should never have a soulmate such as Maria and Howard are to each other and that his relationship would be healthy and built on trust, something Maria and Howard never seem to care about.

 

And now, with the blank look of Steve's face when Tony smiled shyly at him and Tony's crushing disappointment when Steve did not react at all, when he said “You're welcome” softly, to a love-struck Tony, who could not stop blabbering and stuttering, he couldn't help but think it was the Starks' curse, to live with a person that is not suited at all, with someone who would always love somebody else and never love him.

 

This only reaffirmed his belief that there was nobody in the whole wide world who would want him, not even his soulmate.

 

**********

 

Tony, with his broken heart and tears in his eyes, he called his Honeybear, Rhodey the next moment he got out of Steve's Rogers' eyesight and cried the whole story to his best friend who listened patiently until Tony had finished the whole story, after which Rhodey started. He told him to go to his dorm room and stay there, and that he and Pepper would come there, as soon as possible.

 

This was why Tony loved his Rhodey, his level-headed Platypus, and Pepper, his platonic soulmate. They would take care of him.

 

Sufficiently calmed down, he cut the call and gazed at it for a second, before his mind blanked out for a second.  _Colors. Everywhere._ He could not believe his eyes, it was like a sensory overload, too much information, everywhere, assaulting his eyes, beneath his round big glasses that he chose over the thousand dollar contacts just to piss Howard off.

 

Now, he could see the white that surrounded the glass, the too imperceptible translucent... something( _white,_ his traitorous mind whispered), his skin complexion that was too dark compared to Howard, his surroundings, with the too bright colors assaulting his mind. There was what he thought to be green on the trees, and brown on the bark and the branches, the different blues and grays of the cars that zoomed past him in a too high speed, too fast for his eyes to ache just by looking at them, and too quick for his mind to register.

 

Sensing he was veering to the edge of a high scaled cliff below which lay the depths of a severe panic attack, he did what he always does and what he is special in doing, he compartmentalized. Shut down the part of his brain which screamed and insisted on cataloging all the different colors it comes across _(2 types of gray, 3 types of blue...)_ and focused on getting to his dorm room.

 

What happened after remained a mystery to him. Everything was a blurred whitey feeling and he does not remember much until he found himself sitting with his back to the front door, leaning against it, his mind pushing him off the cliff to the darkness of the panic attack he so desperately tried to stave. Rhodey and Pepper were before him, and were busy soothing him, as he panicked, finally and experienced the panic that had been building withing him from the moment Rumlow decided he was a nice target, and which he had been surpassing through out Rogers ( _Steve_ ) swooping in like a Prince Charming, and him getting the cold blooded feeling that he was the only one who saw colors between the two of them, all through the mind numbing stumble back to his room, and now, with red surrounding him and brown comforting him, he finally, _finally_ , let go.

 

**********

 

The following few days were some of the worst Tony had ever experienced in his short life, and that was saying something, compared to all the drama and the neglect( _why don't you call that abuse?_ ) he had suffered by living under Howard's thumb and the constant bullying he had faced in college, what with being at least three years younger than the youngest and twice as smarter than those plebeians, before Rhodey and Pepper had managed to take him in and adopt him as if he was a lost puppy.

 

And now, with the brightly lit colors that assaulted him whenever he stopped and gazed around him ( he managed to start hating them within thirty six hours), and seeing everything in color and in an entirely new perspective, and seeing the same exact blue in the sky, as the shade of Steve's (he tried and failed miserably in calling him miserably) blue _blue_ eyes, that had gazed at him kindly when he helped him up and how the pale peach color of his bed reminded him of Steve's complexion, it was a wonder he did not go mad yet.

 

So he did what he always did, when he was confronted with something he did not want to deal with, he ignored it and hoped against hope that it would go away. ( _Shut up, Pepper, it is perfectly normal and healthy, it worked when Ana died and when Mom decided to leave._ )

 

**********

 

So, Tony threw himself headlong into his work, into creating, into machinery and wiring and things that don't talk and be stupid and pretty and make him fall in love with someone who doesn't need him. At all.

 

He became a hermit, basically, going to classes and then getting holed up in his lab, working and working, fueling himself with numerous cups of coffee to the point of exhaustion, when Pepper or Rhodey would carry him back to his dorm and make him sleep, after which he would get up, grit his teeth and repeat the same vicious cycle all over again.

 

And, so it went on. He perfected DUM – E and even managed to draw up the specs for a sibling, whom he jokingly christened Butterfingers, trying to ignore the ever growing traitorous part of his mind that screamed the names of all the colors his eyes came across and cataloged the various shades, again and again, tried so desperately to pay no heed to the colors he painted DUM – E in (red and gold) and if a star was etched itself into DUM – E's body, in the same color as Steve's eyes, well, ( _\- just a co-incidence, Rhodey, doesn't mean anything_ ).

 

His greatest creation was the glasses he managed to create, after hearing of Rhodey's brother's color blindness, who was not able to see any color, despite meeting his soulmate. After slaving for more than 2 months, he managed to create a pair of glasses, that even though was slim and looked more or less like a pair of nerd glasses, managed to throw color into any object they come across, provided, of course, they already met their soulmate. Sometimes, some things cannot be changed, no matter how much Tony wants to.

 

He put those glasses into production and worked day and night to make sure those were cheap and available throughout, with the firm belief that everyone should be able to see the blend of light and the spectra around them, trying to ignore the colors that swirled around his eyes, trying to pay no attention to the mind that whispered that his own soulmate couldn't see colors, trying so hard to celebrate Thomas's resounding cry and celebration at the Rhodes' household and their party for Tony who helped them over the jagged pieces of his own broken heart. ( _Hypocrite._ )

 

**********

 

As soon as Pepper and Rhodey simultaneously run into his lab, slightly out of breath, Tony has a weird sense of foreboding and he knows, _just knows_ that this conversation wouldn't go particularly well. His self-preservation skills were screaming at him to get away, to run from the conversation as fast as he can, but, he told that part to shut down, just like the soldering iron he turned down and turning his full attention to the both of his favorite people in the world, who were positively glowing with excitement.

 

Okay, good news then.

 

“Did you hear?” That was so unlike Pepper, who liked conversations short and to the point, and was so out of her behavior, to ask a question for which she knew Tony did not know the answer to.

 

“What?” At this point, Tony, too puzzled with Pepper's odd behavior to notice that the answer flew out of their mouths, in sync. Honestly, with the way they were behaving, it would be like Tony had won the Nobel Prize, or maybe Howard was killed, well, that would be a fucking treat, wouldn't it?

 

“- and he's looking everywhere.....Tony? Tony?”

 

“Wait, what?” He was suddenly aware that he missed an entire piece of crucial information in the time he experienced unholy glee in plotting Howard's murder and subsequent disposal of the body. Pepper and Rhodey rolled their eyes fondly at him, still not losing their look of excitement and happiness. ( _their cheeks red, just like Pepper's hair_.)

 

“As I was saying, Steve Rogers is colorblind. He was wearing one of your glasses-”

 

Tony's mind suddenly rebooted, which went offline the moment “Steve Rogers” and “colorblind”, in the same sentence came out of Pepper's mouth, and he screamed, “What?” ( _the second time in two minutes),_ desperately trying to squash the feeling of hope that blossomed in his heart.

 

( _And was that Rhodey's brown eyes dancing with excitement and Pepper's blue eyes becoming more blue?_ )

 

“Yes, Tony. He is color blind, He was walking with one of your glasses, around the campus, searching for the one who made him see colors. His soulmate. 'The one who is seeing colors without his other half', he described, if I recall perfectly.” Rhodey's statements made his heart race, both his irrational heart and rational mind urging Tony to go speak to the guy, tell him that he was his soulmate and make him accept him, love him.

 

But that was stupid. After all, who would want Tony, the spoiled bratty child, with a silver spoon shoved up his ass? Nobody would want him, that's what,

 

Before he could reply to Pepper's impatient question “Well, what are you waiting for?”, the lab's doors flew opened and the man in question walked through, more like strode through, with a determined tilt in his rosy face, the black glasses framing his blue _blue_ eyes, and damn, all of Tony's rational thoughts flew out of his mind the moment he caught sight of those glorious pecs framed by the white shirt he was wearing and the blue pants that so complimented his eyes and his shirt. But then, again, Steve could be wearing a burlap sack in a disgusting color ( _ugh, violet_ ) and Tony would still find him perfect.

 

And just like that, Tony found out he missed another integral piece of conversation, too hell bent on staring at Steve, his red lips that begged to be touched and bitten, and the moment he gathered himself, he found Steve staring at him the same way he was sure he himself looked at Steve the moment he saw colors.

 

“I'm sorry.” were the first words out of Steve, when he caught the fact that Tony had caught him staring, and wait.. “Why?” Tony asked him, transfixed by Steve.

 

And Steve, paid no heed to the question, too intent in drinking in Tony, and Tony found out that he didn't care. Much. Now, he was enamored with Steve just as much as Steve was enamored with him, content with staring and mapping out the features of each other.

 

Another time, there would be conversations and explanations and apologies, but for now, he was content with staring at Steve and memorizing him.

 

**********

 

“You two are disgusting. Disgusting. Bleargh! I'm gonna need therapy!!” Clint's voice carried through, bursting their own little bubble of happiness, and Steve laughed. He had a nice laugh, Tony thought for the millionth time, staring at his plump, red lips and sun-kissed hair that formed a halo, content and happy.

 

Pepper and Rhodey shook their heads in the background but Tony ignored them, because now, he could enjoy all the colors, who could touch and kiss those colors he had tried to ignore.

 

He now had someone with whom he could enjoy the spectra around them, marveling at the beauty, the magnificence around them.

 

He now had someone who saw him what he truly was, with all the colors and his habits and still accepted him, loved him.

 

He now had a soulmate.

 

**********

 


End file.
